Chorus Systemes SA, Paris says microkernels are now maturing to the point where industry collaboration on microkernel and server interfaces is required – their popularity is bringing up a boatload of compatibility issues. Indeed it says there are already informal discussions going on between microkernel vendors, suppliers and developers. The issue, as Chorus sees it, will be to ensure that microkernels don’t get standardised at the level of procedural system calls – as Unix has been – but at a much higher level that can accommodate the range of object-oriented microkernel efforts under way too. It must be hoped that the bloody scenes witnessed during Unix standardisation efforts can also be avoided by this early warning process. The microkernel standardisation effort won’t be restricted to Chorus technology – the alternative Carnegie Mellon University Mach microkernel being used by the likes of the Open Software Foundation and IBM Corp is an equally important part of the proceedings. Chorus envisages the creation of some form of interface definition language that can interpret messages exchanged by server systems that would enable, for example, microkernel-based systems to be plugged in and out of the network as required. Some of that work is already being carried out as part of Chorus’ Overture project under the European Commission’s Esprit programme. The concern, says Chorus, is that people will try to standardise too early. It believes that a quickly formulated and implemented standard won’t be able embrace the variety of microkernel-based object systems coming down the track, and believes it would be prudent to wait until some of this stuff has begun to take shape. In the meantime, Unix System Laboratories Inc has already pledged to make the system programming interfaces of its microkernel architecture compatible with the Mach microkernel currently under development at the Open Software Foundation’s research institute.
